SSC Film Studies

Laura Mulvey - Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema Quote Analysis

“Woman, then stands in patriarchal culture as a signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live our his fantasies and obsessions through linguistic command, by imposing them on the silent image of woman still tied to her place as bearer of meaning not maker of meaning.”

This quote is about the male driven culture that our society is made of. The male gaze is symbolic of the passive role of women in cinema. Mulvey explains that women are unaware of what they are supposed to do in the patriarchal culture. Men need somewhere to base their fantasies and women are this outlet. The idea of separation of the audience from the film allows for sexual gratification that include watching without affecting. She goes on to explain the role of the woman as a provoking object. The woman are there to inspire the men and create an erotic image for him, but she is no good for anything else.

This idea of the woman character being an object of affection and nothing more seems to be an outdated theory. To some point, women are still sexualized in film as the male roles are dominant. But in film now, there have been increasing numbers of films where the woman is the main character resembling strength and worth, such as Fast and Furious. The criticism to this however would be that in these films with women as main characters, there is usually a man there to save her or inspire her. The sexualization of men has increased as well which structures the desires towards a woman audience. The patriarchal society still creates a strong male role in film, but women are starting to make their way through the objectification.